ExxonMobil second quarter 2026 earnings explained: segments, cash flow and valuation multiples

ExxonMobil reported its second quarter 2026 results on July 31, 2026. It has since reported its third quarter, on October 30, 2026, and a separate Dalsna Finance article covers those results. This article looks back at the three months ended June 30, 2026 and compares them with the first quarter. Earnings under GAAP, the standard US accounting rules, were $14,525 million against $4,183 million, as reported by ExxonMobil. Every figure is sourced and dated, and every number worked out by us is labelled as a Dalsna Finance calculation. ^[1][2]

ExxonMobil in brief

ExxonMobil explores for and produces oil and natural gas and sells fuels, chemicals and specialty products such as basestocks and lubricants. It is based in Spring, Texas, and its common stock trades on the New York Stock Exchange under the ticker XOM. Its first quarter release said it supports customers in more than 180 countries. ^[3][4]

The company changed its legal structure the day after the quarter ended. On July 1, 2026 Exxon Mobil Corporation, a New Jersey company, completed what its quarterly report calls a redomiciliation reorganization. ExxonMobil Holdings Corporation, a Texas company, became the publicly traded parent of the group and took over as the registrant of the common stock. The second quarter report was filed separately by both companies, and the second quarter release was issued by ExxonMobil Holdings Corporation. ^[3][1]

The four business segments

ExxonMobil reports four operating segments and a separate Corporate and Financing line. Upstream holds the company's exploration and production activities. Energy Products sells fuels, which the quarterly report groups as gasoline and naphthas, heating oils, kerosene and diesel, aviation fuels, heavy fuels and other energy products. Chemical Products sells chemicals, including what the company calls performance chemicals. Specialty Products earns from basestocks and from products such as what the company calls performance lubricants. ^[1][3]

Every segment earned more in the second quarter than in the first. In its release ExxonMobil said Upstream gained from record Permian production of more than 1.8 million oil equivalent barrels a day and from the absence of operational disruptions in Kazakhstan, partly offset by the Middle East disruptions. It said Energy Products gained from strong US Gulf Coast utilization and record diesel production, partly offset by scheduled maintenance. It credited Chemical Products' gain to what it called North American feed advantage and reliability, and Specialty Products' to higher basestock margins and a strong Middle East response. ^[1]

In Energy Products, GAAP earnings of $5,465 million were above adjusted earnings of $4,099 million. A favourable timing effect of $2,546 million outweighed $1,180 million of identified items, which included an $884 million impairment outside the United States (Dalsna Finance calculation for the sum). Upstream carried a $1,199 million loss from financial reserves, which ExxonMobil treated as an identified item. Both terms are explained in the next section. ^[1][3]

Production and sales volumes

Oil and gas production fell in the second quarter, to 4,514 thousand oil equivalent barrels a day from 4,594 thousand in the first. An oil equivalent barrel counts natural gas alongside oil, at six million cubic feet of gas per thousand barrels. The release highlights call it the highest Upstream production in more than two decades, but only excluding the Middle East disruptions: that comparison leaves out Middle East country volumes in every period. Against the second quarter of 2025, the quarterly report says production fell by 116 thousand barrels a day because of Middle East disruption impacts, mostly offset by Permian and Guyana growth. ^[1][3]

The quarterly report says market conditions in the quarter were heavily influenced by supply disruptions in the Middle East and by reductions in global refining capacity. It describes global industry refining margins as sharply above their ten year historical range, while chemical margins improved but stayed below the bottom of their ten year range. ^[3]

The numbers, quarter over quarter

Sales and other operating revenue was $114,529 million in the second quarter, against $83,161 million in the first, up 37.7% (Dalsna Finance calculation). Earnings rose to $14,525 million from $4,183 million. Profit margin here means earnings divided by sales and other operating revenue: it was 12.7% against 5.0%. ^[3][1]

ExxonMobil also reports Adjusted Earnings, a non GAAP measure. It leaves out identified items, which the company describes as individually significant non operational events, typically worth at least $250 million in a quarter. It also leaves out estimated timing effects, primarily related to derivatives that must be marked to current prices before the physical shipments they relate to are booked. ExxonMobil says these effects are expected to unwind in later periods. Adjusted Earnings were $14,680 million against $8,772 million. ^[1]

The two quarters moved in opposite directions on timing. The first quarter carried unfavourable timing effects of $3,883 million and a $706 million identified item for Middle East impacts. The second quarter had favourable timing effects of $2,483 million and $2,638 million of identified items: $1,079 million of impairments and $1,559 million of other items, which include $1,365 million of additions to financial reserves and $194 million of Middle East impacts. ^[1][4]

Until the first quarter ExxonMobil also gave earnings excluding identified items only, which keeps the timing effects in. That was $4,889 million in the first quarter. The second quarter release no longer shows that line, but adding the $2,638 million of identified items back to GAAP earnings gives $17,163 million (Dalsna Finance calculation). ^[4][1]

Cash flow and shareholder distributions

Cash flow from operating activities was $23,555 million in the second quarter, against $8,705 million in the first. The first quarter release said its figure would have been $13.8 billion excluding margin postings, which is cash posted as collateral for derivatives on futures exchanges. Free cash flow, which ExxonMobil defines as operating cash flow plus its net investing cash flow with some adjustments, was $17,236 million against $2,699 million. Cash capital expenditures were $6,787 million against $6,187 million. ^[1][4]

ExxonMobil returned $9.4 billion to shareholders in the second quarter, $4.3 billion of dividends and $5.1 billion of share repurchases. In the first quarter it returned $9.2 billion, $4.3 billion of dividends and $4.9 billion of repurchases. The dividend was $1.03 a share in both quarters, and the company declared the same amount for the third quarter. Total debt was $42.4 billion at June 30, 2026, against $43.5 billion at the end of 2025. ^[1][4][3]

Earnings per share

Earnings per share, or EPS, is profit divided by the number of shares. The diluted figure also counts shares that could be issued under stock awards. ExxonMobil reported diluted EPS of $3.48 for the second quarter and $1.00 for the first, and adjusted EPS of $3.52 and $2.09. Dividing each earnings figure by the average diluted share count ExxonMobil reports gives the same results. ^[1][4][3]

The gap between the two measures shrank in the second quarter because the favourable timing effects and the identified items largely cancelled out. In the first quarter both worked against GAAP earnings, so adjusted EPS was more than twice the GAAP figure. ^[1][4]

What the market values ExxonMobil at

Market capitalization, or market cap, is what the stock market values the whole company at: the share price times the number of shares. ExxonMobil shares closed at $187.25 on Friday, October 30, 2026, as reported by StockAnalysis. The cover of the second quarter report lists 4,111,911,960 shares of common stock outstanding as of June 30, 2026. That gives a market cap of about $769.96 billion (Dalsna Finance calculation). Every multiple and share price below uses this one share count. ^[5][3]

Keep the timing in mind. The price is from the day the third quarter results came out, so it reflects news that is not in this article. The earnings behind every multiple stop at June 30, 2026, as reported with the second quarter, and the share count is the one at that date. The multiples below are therefore today's price set against the second quarter's numbers, not a current valuation on the latest results. ^[5][2][3]

Six valuation multiples

The price to earnings ratio, or P/E, is market cap divided by a year of earnings. It shows how many dollars the market is paying for each dollar of yearly profit. Annualised means one quarter multiplied by four, so it assumes the second quarter's conditions lasted a full year. GAAP earnings of $14,525 million times 4 is $58,100 million, which gives an annualised P/E of 13.3. Adjusted Earnings of $14,680 million times 4 is $58,720 million, which gives an annualised adjusted P/E of 13.1 (Dalsna Finance calculation). ^[1][5][3]

A forward P/E uses an estimate of future earnings. The only dated full year 2026 estimate we found, reported by Barchart on April 10, 2026 at $8.73 a share, was made before ExxonMobil had reported any 2026 quarter, and adjusted EPS for the first six months alone has since come to $5.60. Because it no longer reflects reported results, we do not use it, so both forward P/E values are not calculated. ^[6][1]

A trailing P/E, sometimes called a historical P/E, uses the last four reported quarters, here the twelve months to June 30, 2026. GAAP earnings over that period added up to $32,757 million, which gives a trailing P/E of 23.5. We found no Adjusted Earnings figure for the third quarter of 2025 in ExxonMobil's releases, so the trailing adjusted figure uses earnings excluding identified items instead, the measure it reported for each of those quarters: $37,366 million, which gives 20.6 (Dalsna Finance calculation). ^{[7][4][1][5][3]}

The last four quarters

Each quarter's GAAP earnings and earnings excluding identified items come from ExxonMobil's own releases, except the second quarter of 2026 excluding identified items, which we work out as described above. GAAP earnings added up to $32,757 million and earnings excluding identified items to $37,366 million (Dalsna Finance calculation for the sums). The second quarter of 2026 was the largest of the four on both measures. ^[7][4][1]

Two base cases: the second quarter held flat for a year

Suppose sales and other operating revenue stayed at the second quarter's level for a full year, with no growth and no decline: $114,529 million times 4, or $458,116 million. At the second quarter's GAAP profit margin that gives $58,100 million of earnings, or $14.13 per share on the cover share count. At the adjusted margin it gives $58,720 million, or $14.28 per share (Dalsna Finance calculation). ^[3][1]

Both cases are simply the second quarter annualised, so at the annualised P/E each returns the October 30, 2026 close of $187.25 by construction. The other cells only show how the price moves when the same earnings are given a different multiple. The GAAP case meets the GAAP multiples and the adjusted case the adjusted ones. The trailing adjusted multiple rests on earnings excluding identified items, a close but not identical measure, so that cell mixes two bases. The forward P/E values were not calculated, so they have no column. ^[1][5]

There is no separate operating margin case. ExxonMobil reports no income from operations line, and the items that distorted the quarter, the timing effects and identified items, are already left out of Adjusted Earnings, which the adjusted case uses. ^[3][1]

The adjusted base case in a chart

Sector comparison

This table sets the second quarter at ExxonMobil beside seven other large US oil and gas companies, using each company's own reported figures for the three months ended June 30, 2026, though integrated companies, producers and refiners earn money in different ways, so margins are not like for like. Each P/E here divides the October 30, 2026 close by four times the quarter's diluted EPS, so it can differ a little from the market cap based P/E earlier in this article. ^[1][5]

What came next

ExxonMobil released its third quarter results on October 30, 2026, the first full quarter with ExxonMobil Holdings Corporation as the parent company. They are covered in a separate Dalsna Finance article, which is the place to look for whether the timing effects booked in the first half began to unwind, as ExxonMobil said such effects are expected to. This article does not use any third quarter figures. ^[2][3][1]

One legal item tied to the period: effective July 31, 2026, the company settled claims brought by the state of Louisiana and coastal parishes over coastal marsh erosion. The quarterly report says the settlement is not material, that its estimated earnings impacts are included in the second quarter financial reserve updates and that it does not constitute an admission of liability. ^[3]

How these figures were made: inputs come from ExxonMobil's releases for the fourth quarter of 2025 and the first and second quarters of 2026 and from its second quarter report on SEC EDGAR. The share price is the dated close named above. Calculations use unrounded inputs and are rounded only at the end, with multiples to one decimal, per share figures and prices to the cent and dollar amounts in millions. ^{[7][4][1][3][5]}